Tired eyes of rescuers betray horror in rubble

By Sarah Sands in New York

12:01AM BST 14 Sep 2001

OUT of the iron grey cloud tinged with pink came the rescue workers yesterday, their faces smeared with grime, their tread heavy, like miners at the end of a shift. Most had been working since Tuesday without rest.

Jonathan Sanchez, a construction worker swaying with sleeplessness, was going home for a couple of hours before returning.

"I could not stop," he said. "I could hear people in there, screaming for help, but I couldn't get to them. I heard someone shouting, 'get me out', but you cannot get through all the rubble. It's going to take another three days to get under that rubble.

"I feel so messed up. I have found arms and legs, people in pieces, and there is so much smoke and humidity, there is asbestos in the air. I gotta go back there, those people are going to die."

It was a day for heavy machinery, cranes lifting steel and concrete while lorries brought out piles of debris.

Related Articles

It could have been a construction site except for the intermittent morgue lorries, the heavy army presence and the fluttering American flags on the front of all the vehicles.

Teams of firemen, construction workers and volunteers rode up and down the deserted, dust-choked streets, their tired, honest eyes looking out from their masks.

The Salvation Army had set up coffee stalls and restaurant booths provided emergency bedding. "The food here is excellent," beamed one fireman gratefully as he munched on a dry bun.

The camaraderie among the workers is glowing. A bunch of heavily built construction workers from Queens shared raucous jokes and cigarettes. They had spent two days passing debris along a line to each other.

"We did a lot of work" said Mike Cioffi. "But there ain't no survivors. I saw a couple of bodies, well one was a half body, and then there was this head by itself.

"Those people are coming out in bags, you can't pull out no people."

He said that dogs were deep into the wreckage looking for bodies but there was fear of the sheer instability of the structures.

"We should be bringing those buildings down but we can't while we are still looking for people. There are still people trapped in the underground parking garage. A cop went in there and fired a gun to let 'em know he was there."

Not all the workers are built for the task, relying on will rather than strength. Victor Rodriquez, 17, had been working through the night to clear debris with his bare hands.

Chris Lee, a 27-year-old actor, had been pushing through the wreckage since Tuesday afternoon. "I saw it happen from Union Square and it felt like the end of the world," he said. "I came straight here to help."

While laboriously lifting rubble, piece by piece, he had seen firemen trying to forge a route through the tunnels of the subway.

"But there is so much instability down there, and there are gas leaks and steam. The worst thing in there is the smell, it is like nothing I have known.

"And it looks like nothing you see on TV. It is dank and eerie and cold until you get to the core of the hot zone. People are working in there in a completely professional and logical way but you can really see the wear and tear on the faces now."